ATP Tennis Master

Friday, 25 January 2013

The Australian Open 2013 final will feature two of the hottest players on tour in Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Both players have looked in great shape , and the final promises to be a great one.

Djokovic has a pretty much flawless game , and has that slight advantage over Murray in almost each and every department. Be it the forehand , backhand , pace of shot or defense. The key to Murray in this match surely has to be his first serve.He needs a high percentage of 1st serves in , has to serve a lot of aces and has to make sure that he keeps himself close to Djokovic thereby not letting the Serb get off to a quick start.

If Murray is to win this match, he has to win the 1st set. There's no coming back if he loses set 1 , considering the fact that he had a 4 hour thriller.

In my opinion , it's going to be plain and simple for Djokovic. He has a better baseline game , he handles pressure a lot better and he's beaten Murray two times in a row.

Murray did beat Djokovic at the US Open final , but conditions were blustery then , which favoured the Scot. Djokovic has won 20 straight matches here in Melbourne and although players have come quite close to beating him in the past , it's unlikely that Murray is going to be able to get the job done.

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

The semis of the Australian Open 2013 promises much , as the top 4 seeds have made it through.
Djokovic, after coming through in 5 grueling sets against Stanislas Wawrinka , put away Berdych with relative ease in the QFs.
Ferrer on the other hand , survived in 5 sets against Nico Almagro .Ferrer's 12-0 record against his fellow Spaniard worked in his favour as Almagro just couldn't put to the match to bed. Frankly speaking , Ferrer played an average match , making a lot of errors , something he just can't afford against Djokovic .

Semi Final 1 : Djokovic vs Ferrer

Djokovic leads Ferrer 9-5 in their head-to-head , and also contested the USO 2012 semis which Djokovic won in 4 sets. The biggest problem for Ferrer is that he lacks the necessary weapons that are required to beat the big 4. Neither does he have a big serve , nor are his forehand and backhand powerful enough. So his only hope would be to have as many long rallies as possible and wear down the Djoker.
Djokovic though, isn't world no.1 without a reason. He's going to look to control the rallies and prove his dominance as early as possible.

The pick : Djokovic in 3 sets

Semi Final 2 : Murray Vs Federer

Murray has looked particularly impressive this year in Australia. He is yet to drop a set but when you have a look at the opponents he has faced , the highest seed has been no.14 Gilles Simon , who was visibly tired after his epic versus Gael Monfils. Federer on the other hand, cruised through his 1st 4 rounds without dropping as set (in fact, he didn't even drop serve) but his match versus Tsonga was completely different. He struggled with his forehand throughout the match and his serve wasn't too effective either.
The Australian Open courts are slow , and this will work in Murray's favour but Federer's experience on the bigger stages might prove to be the deciding factor.

The pick : Federer in 4 sets

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